It's been quiet in blog land - but no fear, I haven't given up.  It's just been a busy 10 days.  My daughter finished up Kindergarten the last week of June and starts 1st grade tomorrow (year round school - LOVE it).  During her short week off we traveled to western NC to visit some old friends.  I did manage to get a couple of workouts in though.

We took our bikes with us on the trip, and the morning of the 4th we got up and in the thick haze of humidity took off on a ride.  We had drawn a route map on a piece of paper, with no idea of how long it was (or how difficult).  Didn't take us long to miss a turn and end up off our map, but we were enjoying the ride and kept going.  Handy dandy google maps told us that there was an alternate road we could take (we were trying to take a circular route back to the home of our friends), so we rode on.  The next turn was a road called Icard Ridge - we have learned that from now on we should avoid any road with 'ridge' in the name.  It started with the steepest incline I've ever biked up - it seemed like a 20 degree incline.  That was the first time that I sincerely thought I was going to have to get off and walk the bike up, but we made it.  Rode a short distance, and then uphill again.  A short distance, and uphill again.  At this point we came to a cross street that would take us back to our original road.  We stood at the crossroads, in what felt like 100 degree heat (it was only in the upper 70's + humidity, but felt worse), and decided that we didn't like what Icard Ridge had shared with us so far, so we took the easier route home.  We managed to do 16.6 miles, so not a bad ride, but it's definitely harder when you have no idea what the road is going to be like.

I did another bike ride this morning.  I set out on one of my regular routes - it's about 14 miles - which starts with a couple of smaller hills in succession.  After two weeks back to back with rides that were more grueling than I had done previously, my regular route seemed quite easy.  There are several sections of hills that usually wipe me out - today I was able to bear down and climb the hills quite easily.  I am amazed by the change in fitness - since I wasn't expecting it at all.  I decided to ride a bit further than usual since I was enjoying the ride and not feeling too fatigued, and ended up doing 17.2 miles.  I have gotten a lot more comfortable on roads with a lot of traffic (they tend to have a larger shoulder for cycling anyway), so I will have to look at the map and come up with some 20+ mile routes. 

I've also seen significant improvement in my swim.  I swim at the local YMCA, and there is a swim team of middle school aged kids that practices regularly there.  I've been using the workouts posted on their wipe board for the last 2 weeks, and I'm pleasantly surprised to say that I can do about 80% of the workout.  I usually swim for about an hour, and about 2/3 of the way through I will do a practice sprint swim of the 250 yd distance, and my time for that event is steadily decreasing.  I'll have to look back at my post from a few weeks ago to compare the time, but I'm now swimming 250 yards in 4 minutes 52 seconds.  A full triathlon is usually a 1200-1500 yard swim in open water, and I'm not quite ready to swim that distance without stopping, but I am working towards that goal as well.

And that brings me to the run....which I didn't do this week.  Okay, it was easy to cross that workout off my list when I didn't have time to get all 3 in.  I know that in the long run, since it's my worst event, I should be practicing it more often.  I intend to do that this fall, when the weather is more cooperative and I can exercise outside (and not just first thing in the morning when the temperatures are barely reasonable).  I am curious to see if my improvement in cardiovascular fitness in the bike ride will cross over to the run - since that is my weakness.  I guess I'll find out on Tuesday.

And as a final note, there's a kids triathlon here next weekend.  My kids are not participating (one is too young, the other has yet to master riding her bike without training wheels), but perhaps they will be inspired to try in the years to come.  There is a 5K race that I am planning to run this fall, and it has a kids race along with the adult race.  My oldest daughter has expressed an interest in doing a race, so I might get them to do it with me.  My husband and I are ridiculously happy with our new healthy lifestyles, but I am even more delighted that my children are learning fitness and healthy lifestyle habits from our example.  I don't have hopes of training a future athlete - I only wish to teach them to eat well and move often.